Turn around for just a second and you think you’ve been transported into some honky-tonk saloon in Tennessee. But no we’re still at Eurovision and we’re having a hoedown with The Netherlands.

The Netherlands is competing in the second semi-final in position number 8. The country is represented by Waylon and his self-written entry Outlaw in ‘Em.

Gallery

Dress rehearsal

Second Rehearsal

Opinions expressed during our second rehearsal coverage are personal from the mentioned writers.

Josef, Czech Republic (in the press center) – The song sounds really a lot like a country-rock song from the USA. As there are four guitars on the stage (one of them is Waylon’s) and also drums, I think it is already too much. And I am not mentioning that in the last minute, the band members become dancers and their dancing just doesn’t go well with the song. Even though I don’t like the song, I think it will qualify.

Michael, UK (in the arena) – This is as good as all the country shows we’ve seen in Nashville. The singing is very powerful and belongs in the country charts. The dancers are a little off-putting at first as they don’t belong here in this performance. The first time you see them it’s a bit of a shock. If it can get to the final it will do well.

Complete the sentence

First Rehearsal

Dressed in a leopard-like jacket with the token black cowboy hat, Waylon isn’t going to let anyone sleep. With influences clearly from Nashville, Waylon gives as good as anyone in the U.S. country charts today. He’s up against Europe’s finest though and is it too soon for country to make its way over the pond to Portugal.

With four musicians circling him, did he get the idea from The Netherlands own entry from 2016, the beat is rocking hard. A closer look though shows that two of these fake musicians are indeed beatbox dancers and the song takes on another dimension.

Waylon’s heroes, Willie and Waylon would be so proud if they could catch this performance. Great job for introducing more diverse music into the contest.

How Waylon was selected

Back in November 2017, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS announced that they had internally selected Waylon for the Eurovision Song Contest. He came second in 2014 as part of the duo The Common Linnets, so expectations were naturally quite high in the country.

In the popular TV talkshow “De Wereld Draait Door”, Waylon presented five songs to the public in the period from 23rd of February to the 1st of March 2018. All five songs were taken from his new album. On the second of March, Waylon then revealed which song he himself had chosen should be his song for Eurovision.

The Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest

It started out so well for the Netherlands. They won the contest in its second year, in 1957 and again in ’59. Their third victory came 10 years later, and in 1975 Teach-In secured the fourth win for the country with the now classic entry Ding-A-Dong.

As semi-finals were introduced, the Dutch fans struggled to remain positive. From 2005 and eight years forward, the Netherlands never reached the final. But then things changed. The broadcaster stepped up, and started selecting well known experienced names, and it paid off. Anouk came 9th in 2013 with the song Birds, and in 2014, The Common Linnets’ Calm After The Storm came second.

In 2015, Trijntje Oosterhuis failed to reach the final, but in the following two years, the Netherlands ended 11th on both occasions.